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Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

110% humidity, 100% human collaboration

This summer, thousands of educators and vendors who serve education descended on New Orleans and braved 110% humidity for the first “back to normal” conference for the International Society of Technology in Education, or ISTE. After two virtual conferences, folks were excited to be back in person, and despite continued COVID protocols, hugs abounded as friends and colleagues reunited on the tradeshow floor and during sessions throughout the New Orleans convention center. 

My conference experience began at the Future Ready Library Summit on Collaboration where 150 librarians from across the country—and even overseas—gathered to brainstorm ways in which they could better collaborate with teachers, principals, district leadership, and each other. I had the opportunity to welcome the group and felt compelled to share a story about one of my previous visits to New Orleans in 2005, about a week after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. 

Back then, I worked as a television journalist in Oklahoma City. I traveled with the Army to New Orleans to cover the search, rescue, and recovery missions.  While there, we slept in the Walmart parking lot in the Ninth Ward. I had to wear a mask (many years before masks were the norm) and put Vicks VapoRub under my nose to combat the smell of the flood water and waste. My videographer smoked cigarettes at the time, and I found myself standing next to him because the cigarettes smelled better than the air (and I’ve never had a cigarette in my life)!…Read More

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FEV Tutor Named 2022 Winner in Best of STEM Awards in the Bridging the Gap: Tutoring Programs for STEM Category

WOBURN, Mass. – July 27, 2022 – FEV Tutor, the most comprehensive virtual tutoring solution in K-12, was selected as a 2022 Educators Pick Best of STEM Award winner in the “Bridging the Gap: Tutoring Programs for STEM” category. The 2022 Best of STEM Award provides EdTech companies with a fresh twist—an awards program judged by STEM educators for STEM educators: “The Educators Pick Best of STEM Awards.” Winners were announced on July 21 at the NSTA National Conference on Science Education.

The awards program is run by market and product development company Catapult X in partnership with the Teich Group, the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) and MCH Strategic Data. “Three years ago, we created the awards program EdTech was missing—Educators Pick Best of STEM,” said Daylene Long, CEO and Founder of  Catapult X. “The needs of educators are rapidly transforming as new teachers enter the field, administrators address learning loss, and educators search for modern solutions to engage students born as digital natives. This program is truly about creating connections between EdTech and the teachers they serve.”

The Bridging the Gap series of awards acknowledges products and services that enable educators to help accelerate student learning. The evaluating judges stated, “FEV Tutor is what districts have been asking for—individualized tutoring plans that address all students’ needs. What sets it apart? FEV Tutors gives students access to 1:1 tutoring with individualized plans available 24:7. For districts, data are provided to measure that the program works!”…Read More

5 ISTELive 22 sessions that caught our eye

It’s that time of year again–ISTELive 22 is just around the corner, and this year, the nation’s largest edtech show takes place in New Orleans.

Focusing on empowering educators and elevating equity, ISTELive features in-person content live and streamed from the conference, along with online content from remote presenters.

Sessions include focuses on blended learning, curating classroom resources, using augmented reality, project-based learning, building student media literacy, time-saving tech tricks from librarians, using digital tools with students who have special needs, digital problem-solving, and more.…Read More

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School superintendents say navigating political divisions is their biggest challenge

Eighty percent of U.S. school superintendents say that navigating political divides over issues ranging from school closures to mask mandates to teaching about racism in schools is the most difficult part of their job. Nearly half say they are considering or planning to leave their job in the next two to three years.

These are among the findings in a new report, “2022 Voice of the Superintendent Survey,” released by education company EAB at the School Superintendent Association (AASA) National Conference on Education (#NCE2022).  

The results offer an important look at how education leaders are navigating an ongoing pandemic that is taxing administrators, classroom teachers, support staff, and stakeholders.…Read More

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27 digital tools and edtech resources from FETC

As aspects of pre-pandemic life slowly emerge from nearly two years of masking, testing, and social distancing, educators are once again gathering at edtech conferences to experience the latest and greatest solutions, digital tools, and professional learning opportunities.

In Orlando, the Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) kicked off with keynotes and sessions from top edtech experts and real-world practitioners.

Here’s a sampling of new digital tools and announcements from edtech solution providers.…Read More

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Yamaha UC Partners With HuddleCamHD to Enable Clear Collaboration in Classrooms

SUDBURY, Mass. — June 10, 2021 — Yamaha Unified Communications is teaming up with HuddleCamHD to further enhance Yamaha’s portfolio of scalable, high-quality collaboration solutions with easy-to-deploy audio and video product bundles perfectly suited for meeting and learning spaces. Adapted for today’s evolving video conferencing and hybrid learning requirements, the bundles are designed to fit a variety of small, medium, and large meeting and teaching environments and budgets, incorporating Yamaha’s portable YVC-330 USB & Bluetooth® speakerphone, YVC-1000 USB & Bluetooth conference phone, or Yamaha’s HD Single and HD Dual wireless microphone systems.

“Great meetings and learning sessions are a result of best-in-class audio and video solutions that enable clear, distraction-free conversation,” said Michelle Baeza, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Yamaha Unified Communications. “By partnering with HuddleCamHD, we are providing our customers with more interoperable options that are easy to deploy and incredibly simple to use to ensure flawless collaboration in any room.”

Yamaha’s rich history delivering audio hardware and HuddleCamHD’s innovations in video conferencing will provide customers with scalable solutions for video conferencing, hybrid learning, and other communications from the home, office, or event space. For small rooms, the portable YVC-330 USB & Bluetooth speakerphone with SoundCap ensures the best-quality audio, no matter where a meeting happens. The YVC-1000 conference phone is an intuitive communications system featuring separate microphone and speaker units for flexibility during audio, web, and video conferencing in medium to large spaces. For large rooms such as boardrooms, lecture halls, or auditoriums, the HD Single and HD Dual wireless microphone system features a portable plug-and-play design with simple setup and produces superior HD sound quality. …Read More

7 fun ISTELive 21 sessions to add to your schedule

For the second year in a row, ISTE’s annual conference will be virtual–but ISTELive 21 is still chock-full of engaging and thought-provoking learning experiences for educators.

ISTELive 21 will focus on “Designing a New Learning Landscape”–an apt theme given the many discussions around how the COVID-19 pandemic has given education the chance to tweak last-minute changes and make them more permanent solutions.

While you’re building your schedule, take a look at some of the ISTELive 21 sessions we’re looking forward to attending. …Read More

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PTC Wizard Integrates with Zoom

Only Parent-Teacher Conference Scheduler with Zoom Video Conferencing

Boca Raton, FL―April 16, 2021―PTC Wizard, developer of the PTC wizard platform, an online parent-teacher conference scheduler, announces full integration with Zoom video conferencing.

Now, it is possible for faculty at middle schools, junior highs, and high schools to enjoy the user experience of personalization and parental engagement. Schools offer benefits of face-to-face communication and the freedom to schedule their parent-teacher conferences without investing valuable time to organize individual Zoom meeting links for every meeting.…Read More

vFairs Offers Immersive Virtual Graduations to Schools and Colleges

Graduation season is rapidly approaching, and continued restrictions against social gatherings to combat the coronavirus are still in effect in much of the country. vFairs, the leading platform for hybrid and virtual events, is offering immersive, customizable virtual graduation ceremonies to schools, colleges and universities, including features such as creating a virtual campus setting and 3D modeling to make the experience truly memorable.

According to a March 2020 poll by Educause Review, 49% of colleges and universities elected to postpone their 2020 commencement ceremonies, 14% opted to cancel commencement altogether and 14% planned a virtual ceremony. Rather than hosting a live webinar or virtual conference call, vFairs makes it possible for schools to create a virtual graduation ceremony in a virtual world.

vFairs can create customized three-dimensional models of a campus, stadium or auditorium modeled after the school. For example, the vFairs platform can create virtual environments replicating your community college campus to hosting a ceremony on the National Mall in Washington D.C. The platform also can create virtual avatars of graduating students dressed in caps and gowns. The result is an immersive virtual experience that students, parents and faculty will remember.…Read More

New 10,000 ANSI Lumen 3LCD Projector Expands Laser Line for Large Scale Displays

Today, Maxell Pro AV announced the expansion of its laser projector lineup with the 4K ready MP-WU8101 3LCD laser projector. The new high brightness 3LCD projector is designed to deliver stunning displays for digital signage applications as well as large lecture halls, conference rooms, auditoriums and museums. An extension of Maxell’s laser projector line, the MP-WU8101 comes backed by a generous 5-year/20,000-hour warranty.

The MP-WU8101 projector comes 4K ready— designed with 4K signal input on HDMI, HDBaseT and Display Port input terminals for HD and 4K images and videos providing an enhanced viewing experience. In addition, the 10,000 ANSI lumen brightness creates stunning displays in spaces where natural and ambient light is unavoidable.

With up to 50,000 hours light source life on Long Life 2 mode, the MP-WU8101 provides vivid, colorful projection— and with laser light source, mercury lamps and lamp replacement become obsolete, resulting in lower maintenance costs and an eco-friendlier projection investment.…Read More